It’s that time again-
If you’ve been following a while now, you know that every so often I like to delve into what the latest statistics reveal about the state of business blogging. While there’s plenty of information at hand, if you know me then you know it’s not enough for me to simply see a stat and share it like it’s the gospel truth.
In order to consider them worthy of sharing with you here, any figures I cite have to pass the following criteria:
a) They have to be recent (i.e no earlier than 2020). It’s all well and good to go on about what search terms people are using or how they’re integrating their blog articles across social media- but if the data set is from 2015 then there’s a good chance a bit has changed since then!
b) The stats have to be relevant to us. So for this articles’ purpose: they have to give us a real, by-the-numbers insight into the state of blogging for business in 2023.
So I took my time looking through the data sets available online, scrolling through infographics, clicking links and checking their recency. I did the work so you don’t have to, and what you’re about to see here are the most interesting figures as a result of this deep dive…
Whether you already have a regular blog established and you’re publishing on a regular basis, or you’re considering starting a blog, these numbers should give you plenty to consider when it comes to your blog content strategy.
Enjoy!
73% of people admit that they skim blog posts:
Blogging length and frequency statistics
That’s according to this data, courtesy of the folks at Hubspot. The other 27% read posts thoroughly, start to finish. What does this mean for us?
It means we can afford to relax a little- don’t sweat the small stuff! Do you have the key details down, have you hit all the main checkpoints in your piece? Then your piece is probably ready (or close enough).
It’s so easy to get caught up in minor details – anything from a turn of phrase to what image to use in a section of your post – but there comes a point where it’s a waste of your time to do so.
Better to get your piece out there and get it seen/ read. Then move on to the next thing…
68% of online experiences begin with a search engine:
To attract consistent attention to your blog articles, you need to get your articles ranking in the search engines. This comes down to finding the right keywords, but also being consistent with your content and efficient with your strategy. It’s no use just publishing a few articles and then letting them sit there, waiting for the views to come in. Publishing consistently (be that on a weekly/ fortnightly/ monthly basis) is key to building up a following.
If you’re stuck for ideas, you might not need to keep brainstorming, either. The answer you’re searching for may lie in older content that just needs updating, re-polishing – and re-publishing. Some of the articles that have ranked best for me have been repurposed pieces. Maybe you don’t need to reinvent the wheel – maybe you just need to put a new set of tyres on?
56% of blog authors list social media as their #1 traffic source:
You might have written the most informative and engaging piece ever (or, at least the most informative and engaging piece you’ve ever written) but it’s going nowhere if it doesn’t have a headline that converts into clicks. You could still have crafted one hell of a headline hook – but it’s an effort wasted if you aren’t sharing your piece in the right places.
So with your ideas for new pieces and your headline brainstorming, it needs to tie in with a social media strategy that promotes your pieces and draws attention to your articles.
Posts that exceed 3000 words attract 138% more visitors than posts with fewer than 500 words. On top of this? Just 4% of blog authors are publishing posts with over 3000 words:
Blogging Trends Predicted For 2024
So if you’re willing to take a bit of extra time, and ad more padding to your post, then it’s bound to pay off. BUT:
The average blog post takes 4 hours to write, an increase of over 60% since 2014:
https://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/blogging-statistics/
Obviously this means if you’re going to publish regular articles, then it’s going to require a regular time commitment. So for the time and energy you invest, you want to make sure it’s all worth it, and you see the best ROI’s possible. If this is something you want to get better at, while remaining “hands on” when it comes to your blog content, there’s a few things you can do:
a) Continue writing, editing, publishing and then looking through your results to get a better feel for what works and what doesn’t. OR-
b) Chat with me and we can talk about your goals, look at what you’ve done so far and fast-track your progress.
This way, you can be fully confident that you’re putting the best blog content out there with the best strategy in place to back it up. There’s no fixed agenda or lock-in contact- just as much time as you need to share whatever’s on your mind or any questions you have when it comes to perfecting this most valuable form of content strategy
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